In previewing the upcoming UConn football season, Meacham has already given you reasons to feel positive, and reasons to feel that life is meaningless (which is good because football is also meaningless in this case). Now we’ll undergo our annual exercise to make you feel smart by airing all of our wrong opinions and bad predictions in this preseason roundtable.
If you are a glutton for punishment, check out our prior roundtables from 2015, 2016 and 2017.
W/L Record This Year
Meghan Bard: 3-9. I hope.
Kevin Meacham: 3-9, and I’m completely undecided about whether it’s more likely that they overachieve and win four, or the freshmen get overwhelmed and only win two. More than four and Randy’s a wizard.
Tyler Wilkinson: Well, they’ve won three games or fewer in four of the past five seasons and I’m not positive this team isn’t worse than most of those squads. So, 2-10.
Peter Bard: 6-7 with a loss in some shitty bowl somewhere.
Biggest Strength
Meacham: The offensive line, hopefully, because that will unlock a whole bunch of stuff offensively. The tackles should be very good, Crozier is a very good center when healthy, the guards have potential, Edsall likes the depth although none of the backups have played much at this level. But hey, give Pindell time to throw, and I think he’ll be solid. Give Zavier Scott and Kevin Mensah room to run, and whoo baby, we got ourselves a stew going. (A stew that will lose several 56-49 games, but, hey, look over there
Peter: Potentially, the passing game could be very solid this year, provided the team can find a reliable passer. If David Pindell shows real improvement, or if Marvin Washington or Jordan McAfee saw real gains in their redshirt seasons, or if freshman Steve Krajewski is ready to play early, this team has the receiving weapons to actually move the ball up and down the field.
Tyler: Meach managed to sell me on the receiving core in his positive preview. That group seems to have the highest percentage of skills needed to be successful.
Meghan: It appears that we do in fact have a [checks notes] offensive line this year. It’s probably not actually the biggest strength, but it’s certainly a huge improvement over the sacks of potatoes that had been operating as an O Line, so let’s go with that.
Biggest Weakness
Meghan: Babies. So many wee baby freshmen and redshirt freshmen on the two-deep. Bob Diaco couldn’t recruit his way out of a paper bag, so we are tragically low on upperclassmen who can play the game of football. See also: the secondary
Tyler: I know we’re probably supposed to say the secondary here but I am going to keep saying the offensive line until they prove me wrong.
Meacham: [broadly points at the entire defense] A lot of the sentiment around the UConn defense after last year is “hey, it can’t get worse”, but, like, it can always get worse. All three levels of the defense have question marks, but even if the players take to Billy Crocker’s system a bit better in year two, the Huskies have a long road to travel to play defense at a reasonably competent level. And while there are some promising freshmen who will be playing, they are going to make ton of mistakes and not all of them are going to develop into long-term solutions.
Peter: How well this team rushes the passer is anyone’s guess, as the closest thing we’ll find to a returning pass rusher is sophomore linebacker Darrian Beavers, who racked up a respectable 3 sacks in 8 games. The defensive line, however, is largely untested, featuring one true freshman, one redshirt freshman, and one senior with two career tackles. And if that senior’s knee is acting up tomorrow, he’ll be replaced with another true freshman. So this might be a situation, is what I’m saying.
Breakout Player
Tyler: Zavier Scott
Meacham: I’m all in on Travis Jones. Let my large still-adolescent son eat.
Peter: Tahj Herring-Wilson is a talented player at a position where three of the top four players on the depth chart are true freshman. He’s going to have to play and he has all of the tools to succeed.
Meghan: I’m going to go with sophomore Keyion Dixon. He should get plenty of opportunities at wide receiver, and hopefully will be: good, actually.
Offensive MVP
Meacham: Let’s go with David Pindell. I’m not sure I actually believe that, but there’s been a lot of positive talk about him all preseason, so, sure.
Peter: Hergy Mayala is the only skill player on offense who I’m confident will remain a starter all season, barring injury.
Meghan: Hergy. It’s definitely Hergy.
Tyler: Hergy Mayala. I’m expecting a Noel Thomas approximation from Hergalicious.
Defensive MVP
Meghan: All in on Travis Jones
Meacham: Tyler Coyle
Peter: Tahj Herring-Wilson
Tyler: Darrian Beavers
Game you’re least looking forward to
Meacham: UCF and Boise State (tie). Those are going to be hellacious ass-whompings and I don’t care for UConn suffering those.
Peter: Hard to beat @Tulsa here. It really upsets me every time I’m reminded that we’re in a conference with Tulsa.
Tyler: Tulsa on November 3rd. UConn should not play Tulsa, in any sport, ever.
Meghan: Boise State. Game one is on my birthday, so I will at least have fun. The Boise State game starts at 10:15 pm EST and UConn is gonna get absolutely wrecked, and starting the season at 0-2 is not my idea of a good time.
Biggest Win of the season
Tyler: UMass.
Meghan: UMass. Hopefully.
Meacham: SMU
Peter: Syracuse
What is your definition of a “good season” this year?
Meghan: Given how difficult the schedule is this year, and how front loaded it is, I think a team that plays hard and doesn’t give up on the season after they inevitably start out with several losses and shows improvement (particularly on defense in the secondary, for the love of Jonathan) is the best we should hope for. This team is hella young, and if they can keep the faith and improve for next year, I’ll be fine.
Meacham: More wins than last year OR 2-3 wins but only a couple of blowout losses (instead of the six we had last year)
Peter: I took an extremely optimistic tack to start this exercise, but the real answer is competing in every game and beating the handful of teams shitty enough for this roster to have a chance against. So like 3 or 4 wins.
Tyler: Four wins (or possibly even three) with a strong enough showing by the underclassmen to inspire some hope going forward. If UConn can manage to keep the average attendance over 20k (a supremely low bar that I still don’t think they can reach), added bonus.
What is the best grilled cheese sandwich from Whey Station (because grilled cheese is delicious food for adults)?
Meghan: The Ella sounds delicious as hell but I would also put a Channing Tater in my face, no question.
Tyler: I have eaten my share of Whey Station sandwiches (yes, I hate myself). I’m a fan of the AvoMelt, but sometimes go with the Ella if I’m feeling sophisticated (while hating myself).
Meacham: This question is fascism.
Peter: I could pretend I’m classy and get the Ella, but the answer is obviously the Mutt.
Player on the roster most likely to play in the NFL
Meacham: Matt Peart, sooner than later.
Peter: Given Edsall’s track record, my guess is Dante Black.
Meghan: I’m going to go out on a limb and say freshman Travis Jones. He’s 6’4″ and 350 lbs out of New Haven, and Meach says there’s hype, so I am in.
Tyler: Matt Peart
Where is the ConFLiCT Trophy?
Meghan: Bob Diaco’s storage unit in Glastonbury, along with the red pants, the gold football and all the other weird shit he used to have on the sidelines.
Tyler: I gave ten possibilities in a recent mailbag. I remain convinced that someone from the athletic department nabbed it and has it in their basement or garage right now.
Meacham: Someone at UConn has it but won’t tell anyone. If that person is reading this: I will give you American monies for the trophy, please and thank you.
Peter: If anyone at UConn is smart, what’s left of it is floating around in the atmosphere.
